An Exploration Of Ethical Holism In A Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold has been a widely acknowledged American ecologist andenvironmental conservation pioneer, hailed as “founder of the new environmenttheory “and the “father of ecological ethics”. He exerted his utmost efforts to writedown his masterpiece: A Sand County Almanac, about the ecological and ethicalrelations between human and land. The book has been praised as the “Green HolyBible” by environmental protection activists.The first chapter will discuss three stages of shaping Leopold s ethical holismthinking according chronologically. In each stage, his ethical thinking about Homosapiens relation between land has its distinct characteristics. He was previously afaithful follower of the environmental conservation movement led by GiffordPinchot. With the increasing gravity of environmental crisis, he began to realizevarious defects of this movement and tended to support the environmentalpreservation movement launched by John Muir. Finally, based on his life experience,ecological knowledge, and environment field research, he gradually formed his ownunique ecological ethical thinking. His theory has its uniqueness, and innovations,making significant contributions to the environmental protection career, as well ashuman beings ethics.The second, third chapter will further explore Leopold s ethical holism thinkingin details. His thinking mainly involves two essential concepts: the Land Ethic andthe Value of Wilderness. Land ethic has been the framework of his theory, enlargingthe ethical and moral boundaries, putting stress on human beings obligation in thebiotic community, acknowledging other beings moral rights and interests, andestablishing a kind of new moral and ethical evaluation paradigm. As the leadingadvocate of wilderness, Leopold made some definitions about wilderness, andproved the existing values of wilderness. In his ethical theory, wilderness is nolonger a warehouse of the natural resources warehouse for human beings; instead ithas its ecological, scientific, recreational and even aesthetic value. Leopold’swilderness view has played an important role in the protection of increasinglydestructive wilderness and succeeded in attracting A mericans attention towilderness issues.This final chapter will discuss the limits of Leopold s thinking. His ethicaltheory mainly based on ecological knowledge and Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Both theories advocating Homo sapiens is just a plain part of the complex naturalsystem, the product of evolutionary process, while not proposing humans to extendmoral and ethical rights to natural other beings. Leopold’s ethical holism enlargedthe ethical boundaries to all beings of the land, including soil, water, plants, desertand so on. His thinking has obvious personal emotions, too much emphasis onhuman affections for other beings, and ignorance in the specific requirements of inthe real life. What s more worse, his ethical holism ignores interpersonal relations,emphasizing excessively on the value and health of ecological community.